Hundertwasser Toilets
Hundertwasser's Ultimate Stand

When you pass through Kawakawa in the Bay of Islands, New Zealand, you HAVE to stop here. Even if you want to go to the toilet / loo / lavatory / whatever you call it, you must stop and look at it!!!

Internationally renown artist and architect Frederick Hundertwasser could never have dreamed of the impact he was going to have on a small, rural community when he made New Zealand his second home in the 1970’s.

From a sleepy hollow just off the tourist track through the Bay of Islands, the Kawakawa township has flourished into a "must see" mecca for Hundertwasser devotees worldwide.

It all happened as a result of a public toilet - probably the most unlikely building to have ever captured international visitor attention anywhere.

The project has already attracted both French and Japanese television documentary teams to Kawakawa, together with international visitors already beginning to number in the thousands.

Bus tours pull up outside for photo sessions, travellers familiar with Hundertwasser's work in Europe are making special visits to the Bay of Islands rural township, and domestic visitors are making a stopover for both practical and philosophical reasons.

In 1998 the Kawakawa Community Board was looking to upgrade 40-year-old toilet facilities in the central township, and Hundertwasser offered a solution from his design palate.

His concept was adopted and the artist personally lending a hand in construction supervision, including the provision of materials from his own studio.

In consultation with the Bay of Islands College, students prepared ceramic tiles which have been used throughout the building. The bricks used came from a former Bank of New Zealand building, and both young and old from the local community volunteered services to the construction process.

The finished product is a work of art, from the grass roof, to gold balls, ceramic tiles, bottle glass windows, mosaic tiling, copper handwork, cobblestone flooring, individual sculptures and a living tree integrated into the design structure.

With the untimely death of the Austrian-born artist in February 2000, the building is the only Hundertwasser structure in the Southern Hemisphere, and the last major project ever undertaken by the famous artist and designer.

It will remain as both a memorial to Frederick Hundertwasser and a very functional building for the community and visitors alike.

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EACH PHOTO IS NUMBERED - IF YOU WANT COPIES OF ANY PHOTOS CONTACT ME AND LET ME KNOW THE NUMBERS


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